Shortly after the Blues announced they wouldn’t be retaining Miller’s services, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reports both Anaheim and San Jose are going to take a pass on the veteran netminder:

The decision by the St. Louis Blues to not try to re-sign him after a first-round playoff exit was probably a mutual decision anyway. It means Miller is headed to the July 1 unrestricted free agency market for the first time in his career, which was pretty much always the plan.

He’s been linked for almost a year to the Anaheim Ducks, perhaps because Miller’s wife, Noureen DeWulf, is a Hollywood actress, so the fit would certainly work from that perspective. But a source told ESPN.com Wednesday that the Ducks have decided to stick with the kids in net, John Gibson and Frederik Andersen, and do not plan on courting Miller.

You can also rule out fellow California club San Jose. The word out of there is that the Sharks are going to continue to focus on their mini-rebuild and it’s about youth for them. Adding veterans players is not in the cards in San Jose.

So does sixth “honorable mention” team for Miller, the Washington Capitals, suddenly come into play? The Caps only have two goalies with NHL experience under contract for next season — Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer — and there’s no telling what direction the club will go, given its current GM and head coaching vacancies.

To me, Pittsburgh makes the most sense. Fleury continues to show that he’s not capable of carrying a team in the playoffs, and gives up far too many goals for his team to truly contend. Unless the Pens are absolutely on fire, like the year they won the Cup, they don’t have much of a chance with him in net. Adding Miller instead would make them far more dangerous almost over night.

henrik4dawin - May 21, 2014 at 8:58 PM

but there’s no evidence Miller can carry them any better in the playoff’s, and Fleury’s been good regular season wise

1943mrmojorisin1971 - May 22, 2014 at 12:46 AM

There’s no evidence that Germany can win a World War, and France has been good recovery wise.

The Penguins won the Cup in a 2-1 game, where both goals for the Pens were scored by a fourth line center. On fire indeed.

And adding Miller (Who just posted a .897 and 2.70 GAA last playoffs in 6 games) who was also playing for a defense first team versus Fleury (Posted .915 and a 2.40 GAA through 13 games) playing for a team that doesn’t know what the word “Defense” means probably wouldn’t be the best idea.

Right now, he has about as much chance of a Lundqvist payday as his old team, the Sabres, do of winning the cup next year. He had a golden opportunity to finally prove that he could carry a team deep in the playoffs and he blew it, big time.
Sorry Millsie, Buffalo doesn’t want you back, either. we have a ton of young goalies in the system and Enroth needs the Ice time to show that HE is the goalie to help this team build a strong future.
You were great here for years, but it was time for you to move on and play elsewhere. If it’s Washington, I pity you. That team is going nowhere fast, same as Buffalo right now. Too bad Anaheim apparently doesn’t want you. It would have been great fit for your personal life.
At any rate, as a Sabres fan of MANY years, I wish you nothing but the very best wherever you land. Like Bob Hope said, “Thanks for the memories”.

probably more on Miller than any of the teams.. alot of teams would give him a 1-2 year deal, he’s probably looking for minimum 3 years anywhere he goes tho and isnt worth the years+salary hes looking for

I bet Miller saw dollar signs as he left Buffalo, and now it might come back to bite him. Not too many contenders are gonna be lined up to drop a bunch of money that they don’t have on him. The only way Pittsburgh gets in on Miller is if they can trade away Fleury (which could be difficult because he has NMC), otherwise they buy him out if they have a compliance buyout I guess, which isn’t too bad, just 2/3 of 5mm. Should be interesting to see what happens.

meldboy - May 21, 2014 at 9:33 PM

Pittsburgh could carry both Fleury and Miller, especially if they get Miller on the cheap. Ryan left money on the table in Buffalo, they wanted him back. He bet on himself and lost big time.

Too bad Garth Snow didn’t have more number one picks to give Buffalo. He likely would have traded one and Tavares for Miller and Villie Leino.
I have finally seen a GM even MORE stupid than Darcy Regier.

broadstreetbeatdown - May 21, 2014 at 10:24 PM

I wish Mike Gillis was still the Canucks GM. He would have signed him to a 12 year $64 Million contract.

They brought in Jaroslav Halak pretty recently. Seems like they’re going to go in that direction….at least, I hope so as an Isles fan. I want to see Snow fired and Wang sell the team, but I don’t want to see Snow embarass the franchise again to make some idiotic move that won’t pan out.

Pitt could trade Fluery to the Wild for Backstrom and a pick/prospect then go after Miller. Both teams benefit. The Wild rid themselves of Backstrom and the Pens have a solid 1-2 punch in net with miller/Backs.

Pittsburgh is strapped for cap room for next year so I’m sure they would not be looking to sign an aging (and most likely over-priced) goalie in Ryan Miller. Also, Backstrom is 35-36 and his best years are behind him (not to mention he has 3 years left on his contract with an annual cap hit of over 3 mil). Regardless, neither Backstrom or Miller will be going to Pitt………..

chanceoffleury - May 21, 2014 at 10:22 PM

A week ago I was all for keeping Fleury, but as the candidates for Miller die off by the day the Pens look like they might get an edge in landing him. More than anything what worried me was the Pens overpaying for him in a cap situation that is already stretched thin over a select few positions. But when you look at all the teams that are ready now for a cup run or are just a few tweaks away, the Pens do just make more and more sense.

A lot of it depends on how serious he is about wanting a chance at a cup. In regards to playoff teams from this year you could maybe make a case for Dallas, and then Pittsburgh, obviously. You have teams like Vancouver or Washington that are teams on the edge, but the fact is they aren’t in the circle. Realistically, Washington’s situation on defense isn’t *that* much better than Buffalo’s was/is. Their offense is just significantly better. So with that I’m thinking it’s going to come down to Vancouver and Pittsburgh. And I think the edge the Pens do have is an obvious one: Crosby and Malkin have already done it. A good case can be made for the Pens that they really are just a Vezina-quality goaltender and “a coach that isn’t their friend first” away from a Cup. Those two things have played like a broken record over the past 3 years as the Pens’ problem, so it’d be relieving to see both of those things happen and finally get to see whether everyone’s been right about Bylsma and Fleury holding the rest of the core back. But in all 3 he’d be signing with an organization with a lot of question marks up top and taking a chance he’s picking the 1 of the 3 that works out their management rebuild the best. Signing him is the kind of statement move a new GM makes that lets the fanbase know he means business with this rebuild. Getting rid of a cup-winning goaltender in the offseason after he posts some of the better playoff numbers of his career just makes it that much bigger of a statement. It’ll certainly be a very interesting summer as a Pens fan. Not sure if I’m prepared for the 4roller coaster that is going to begin immediately following the final buzzer of the last game of the finals.

I don’t think the Penguins will move on from Fleury until they bring in a new coach with more defensive structure and see if that allows him to return to form. His decline has coincided with Bylsma’s Penguins becoming increasingly erratic in their own end.

Vancouver looks like a team that’s ready to implode at any second. From what I have heard and read, there is not much down on the farm to come help them, either. I don’t think it’s a good fit for either side.

Can definitely see Miller signing a short term deal with the Canucks, only problem there is not close to another cup run. However, it may be the only option that lands him relatively close travels to the Kingdom to see his wife. Plus it would be a decent option considering the Lack of goal tending the Canucks have right now.

The Harding, Backstrom, kuemper trio for MN could be solid.
But there’s no reason to expect that. Kuemper is young and might have the potential to carry the water. Harding, though his story is one of courage and determination, is totally unreliable due to his illness; there just is no way to know how he’ll be feeling in a week, a month, etc. Backstrom is blessed with a contract that pays him very well to be an anchor pulling this team down. Best case scenario he is healthy and mediocre, getting paid as though he’s elite. But he’s more likely to be injured.
Hope fletch can do better than this group.

yetidad - May 22, 2014 at 12:33 PM

In a perfect world, Harding goes on long term IR, Wild somehow gets rid of Backstrom, keeps Kuemper and signs anybody in free agency other than Vanek. Please no Vanek. Miller would then be a viable second goalie for the Wild and an upgrade on the current stable of netminders. MTC.

I think the Ducks might be posturing. They would go no more than two years at 3-3.5 million per year, no more (if he wants to be near his wife) . . . It is a buyers market at this point in the Miller bidding. They could then package Andersen for a two center/top four D-man . . .